MERCURY FUR. To 27 March.

London

MERCURY FUR
by Philip Ridley

Menier Chocolate Factory 53 Southwark Street SE1 To 276 March 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 10min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7907 7060 (£1.75 transaction fee)
www.menierchocolatefactory.com (no fee)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 March

Coruscatingly brilliant dystopia with excellent central performances.I'm still unclear how the quartet of plays in Paines Plough's This Other England' season at the Menier and elsewhere reflects on ways the English language shapes national identity - especially with the two pieces yet to come being from Scottish playwrights (beginning in Glasgow and Dundee)). Language has a different political emphasis north of Hadrian's Wall.

No cause to complain, though, when the season comes up with something so fine as Philip Ridley's new play. I don't know, and the play never says, what the title signifies. But it's intriguingly fitting in its mix of hard and soft, volatile and enveloping. Both are present in what is probably Ridley's finest play to date, one encapsulating the enclosed sibling world he made his own with The Pitchfork Disney (those riddling titles).

The play's set amid a mess; the abandoned flat where two brothers break-in, roughly attempting to give it temporary order. The place reflects their jagged affection as they spew mutual abuse invoking most races and religions round the globe anything East Lunnon guys'd find 'different' ending in stylised ritual hugs'.

With Darren Boulter's fast-talking Darren face and voice look to Elliot for direction and hope. Ben Whishaw's Elliot has a dangerously commanding look and vocal finality giving him the edge. But they're just the fixers; it's weapons-toting Papa Spinks whose volcano-edge hyper-manner ups the unease. Especially as the nature of their party' emerges through the surface rush.

Then there are the innocents of this damaged world, a ruined society where only wealth buys security, while wealth-creation begets violence, implicating those it horrifies. Like Lola, or (unwittingly) the intruder Naz. Shane Zaza gives him a naïve eagerness, making the transformation from furniture-hopping energy to final state impact like a stomach-punch. And Sophie Stanton achieves a magic mix of mental (or chemical) stupor and inane smile, bringing aptness to her upping from Spinks' old dutch to Duchess.

John Tiffany's excellent production grips as it appals, giving the difficult depiction of love in a fearsome climate (in too many plays subverted by tough gesturing and ultimate sentimentality) firm reality and significance.

Elliot: Ben Whishaw
Darren: Robert Boulter
Naz: Shane Zaza
Party Piece: Prem/Previ Gami
Lola: Harry Kent
Spinx: Fraser Ayres
Duchess: Sophie Stanton
Party Guest: Dominic Hall

Director: John Tiffany
Designer: Laura Hopkins
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
Sound/Music: Nick Powell
Fight director: Terry King

2005-03-08 13:09:44